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Over the top

As the New Year begins, with all its opportunity to make resolutions and set targets, I encourage all law-abiding citizens who genuinely want to live in a safe and healthy environment conducive to positive development to collectively determine the way forward for 2014. We would all accept that the major national bugbear is crime and that the need to put politics aside in the fight against crime is a no-brainer. The time for gun talk is over.

And urging citizens to be “careful not fearful,” when the detection rates for all serious and violent crimes are low, does nothing to boost the confidence of the population that is literally living in fear. The past few years, under the last regime and the current administration, have done little to seriously address the matters of urgent, national importance and to date there are still too many glaring examples of corruption, nepotism and favouritism in politics.

Whether we are in a better place now or four years ago will be a question on the minds of the electorate as it gears up for a general election constitutionally due in May 2015. This regime which entered office with magnanimous support has obscenely squandered most of the goodwill of the population and after nearly four years in government has shown that we have still not gotten the politics right or as I prefer to express it—we are still in need of the right politics.

There is no excuse for the failure of this regime to deliver on its promises of a crime-free society and transparent and accountable governance. Supporters of the People’s Partnership (PP) who initially turned a blind eye to the early wrongdoings and questionable decisions of the PP are presently disgusted with the unapologetic flamboyance of this administration which is best described as “over the top.”